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“The Stimulus” was all the buzz last week at the Energy Symposium sponsored by the Berkeley Energy and Recourse Collective at the Haas Business School.”We’ve got a favorable administration in Washington now and a lot of that stimulus money is going to be coming right through this campus,” said Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau in opening the event. Mary Nichols, the new chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, couldn’t wait to get started in implementing, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates that California get 20 percent of its electricity from non-hydro renewables by next year and 33 percent by 2020. The figure now stands at 12 percent. The state is also supposed to ban out-of-state coal, which provides 20 percent of its power, by next year - although many doubt that will be enforced. “President Obama has consistently said that California has set the example in pioneering alternate energy for the rest of the country,” said Nichols, who previously served as head of CARB under former Governor Jerry Brown.

But where is all this leading? The most promising candidate for ramping up solar - the only candidate, really - is solar thermal, which uses vast arrays of mirrors to heat water. Ausra, an Australian company with offices in California, claims it can generate 600 megawatts per square mile, which means it could provide the country’s entire capacity on only 10,000 square miles of Southwest desert - a square 100 miles on each side. The company claims its costs would be comparable with nuclear or a coal plant with complete carbon capture.

But none of this takes into account energy storage, a still unsolved technological problem. And storing electricity for 16 hours - the generally accepted standard - would mean building the facility three times as big, since it has to generate both for contemporary and future use. And of course all this is contingent on not having any cloudy days.

The only thing making these ventures even conceivable is California’s draconian renewable mandates, plus the oodles of subsidies forthcoming for solar out of the Stimulus Plan. Nuclear, on the other hand, was completely shut out of the stimulus.

Is the industry concerned?

“Frankly, we don’t need any money from The Stimulus,” said Scott Perterson, vice president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, who sat on a panel about nuclear power. “It would have been nice to have it but we don’t need it.”

“We don’t even need the federal loan guarantees,” chimed in Conway, site manager for Southern California Edison’s Diablo Canyon Reactor. “There are 34 reactors under construction around the world. Nuclear is moving ahead so rapidly and reactors in this country are making so much money - about $2 million a day - all we need is for the federal government to grant us some licenses and let us go ahead and build. We don’t need any government money.”

Nuclear industry insiders are even optimistic that licensing procedures at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may shorten, since most of the reactors before the NRC are already under construction in other countries. “By the time the NRC gets around to approving these proposals, identical reactors are already going to be operating in Japan, China or France,” said one official.

Despite being ignored by Washington, the Nuclear Renaissance may happen yet.

8 Responses to “Stimulated Energy”

This is a disaster. Nuclear is not only less expensive than solar or wind but is safer. Mainly, though, it has a much smaller ecological footprint and is more secure from terrorists who could darken the state with a crop duster and black paint or shooting an edge of a windmill and unbalancing it, after which it would destroy itself. New reactors on the drawing board can possibly be used to make carbon-neutral liquid fuels. Fresh water can be made from the current generation of plants. Daiblo Canyon does that now. Nuclear is the best way to go. The next big bailout will be for the wind and solar industries.

Of course nuclear energy must be among the options to reduce the consumption of crude oil the world production of which since 2005 has not increased. Reliable electric energy is vital for our future well - being.

It seems to me that President Obama lives in a world of high expectation, little foresight, and head in the sand at times.

Paging Homer Simpson in Sector 7G, please wake up. D’oh! That’s real reanrusisg These people should have taken some pride in their work. Not everyone has the chance to say, I am responsible for the safety of millions of people. To be trusted with such responsibilty should be viewed as a great honor. To betray that trust is beyond dishonorable.Sure, there are other, easier targets, but it is still a very serious responsibility, and it’s sad to see it treated so flippantly. All it takes is one screw up on their part, and they along with countless others, could lose their lives.Timbre has a good point however, covering for someone in one of those positions is a humane thing to do, and in reality you have to make allowances, as long as they can be effectively covered for and alert at a moments notice- a trait which most security professionals pride themselves on. The buddy system of standing watch is a time proven method of extending effectiveness, but everyone asleep is worthless.They should have a couple on patrol and a couple in the ready room. Heck, it is conceivable that the people in the ready room could even be playing video games, reading, or doing schoolwork, to stay awake as long as they are awake and ready to move at a moments notice. Everyone sleeping while on duty to protect people is just a disgrace.